Kindred souls by the sound of it!
I have an acre bush block in Tasmania, Australia. My dogs are inside at night in their baskets, because at night the place belongs to the wallabies, possums and what else.
No poison here either. I know where the ants are, the Jack jumpers who can kill a friend of mine, who has to carry an epi pen, but have not killed me when they have stung me. Still, best to be careful. They toil so hard, carrying all those tiny white pebbles to make their metropolis.

Last week I saw a big black snake near my rubbish bins behind he shed. I stayed inside all day for the sake of the dogs, as it is a place they love to go to! All our snakes are poisonous, but a protected species. They just defend themselves, like the ants. And us. The dogs would not know to quietly back off, but they are my fur children, so I have to look after them.

Possible solution? First, I tiptoe around the shed to see if all is clear, then we can all go outside. In 26 years I have only seen maybe 5 snakes, but of course they are there.
Second solution - don't laugh, or laugh if you feel like it, it does sound silly, and yet: I bought a tello drone, so I hopefully can check on snakes and other things in my little area. I am far away from others. Far enough. A young man who helped me with some fallen trees has a drone and took pictures of my house and area from above, so I guess I have waited for an excuse to get one too. He will help me get it going. I also bought an iPhone to steer it, and there are some issues with it, so I will go back to the shop and get help.

If I hopefully get it all functioning, my son could also use the drone to check on his two story house, which he built himself and climbs up on the roof sometimes to check things.
He is not young any more either, so a drone seems a good idea. It might even scare a snake away. As long as I know if they are there or not. My son has had two dogs killed by snakes. Sad. The dogs don't understand. Last year another of his dogs saw a snake and picked it up and threw it at my son. Then the snake - and my son disappeared, but all three are still alive, or were on that day, snake, dog, son.

GG.

EvelynRysdyk Wrote:
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> It can be very daunting and depressing to see all
> that has gone off the rails, yet in our personal
> practices, we can make efforts that make small
> inroads that can be shared.
>
> For instance, we use no pesticides, fungicides,
> rodenticides, etc. in or around our home and we
> keep an area in the back "rough." We also keep a
> source of fresh water (low birdbath with a heater
> in Winter) available. As a result, our unfenced,
> suburban plot has a remarkable plethora of animals
> and birds. On less that one acre, we have a lively
> little ecosystem and haven that has grown to the
> point where "pests" are handled by their natural
> predators! We often have a yellow jacket (ground
> hornet) nest crop up. If we mark it off so we
> don't accidentally annoy them, the neighbor hood
> skunk finds her way over and eats the entire nest
> (adults, larvas and eegs) in one night! The foxes
> that travel through are good at catching mice
> while the hawks and owls eat their fill of them,
> too. (Best of all, these predators are not being
> sickened by poisoned pray!) The swallows and bats
> take care of the mosquitoes and biting gnats and
> the garter snake, frogs and toads take care of
> many other pesky insects. A coyote is roaming the
> neighborhood, beavers live two doors done at the
> river and a small herd of deer make our yard a
> stop in their nightly foraging foray.
>
> These are simple methods we share with our
> apprentices and each in turn is making their own
> inroads.
>
> Have we solved the larger degradation of the
> Earth? No. But we have preserved and healed a bit
> of it! As each one makes whatever changes that
> can, to plant native species of plants, provide
> safe spaces for natural species and care for their
> little spot of Earth, the better it becomes for
> the whole.
>
> Blessings!